I’m going to list a few traits below and I’d like you to guess what game I’m referring to:

- Top-down Zelda-inspired combat with absurdly small hit detection
- Charge attack that sends a boomerang-like projectile forward
- Moveset consisting of jumps and a dash that utilizes momentum-based drifting
- Floating companion creature whose abilities change depending on equipment preferences
- Linear adventure areas connected via an overworld map
- Villages with talking animals
- Using apples to refill health
- Surprisingly convoluted story about the origin of life
- Complete disregard for any sense of mechanical or narrative pacing
- Can be easily completed in a few short play sessions
- Ends with a beautiful calligraphy “FIN”

It might seem like I’m describing Linkle Liver Story. That’s because I am! But I’m also describing Nextech’s previous game released only a short two years prior: Crusader of Centy. It’s almost comical how perfectly identical these two games are.

Since it’s impossible to divorce Linkle Liver Story from the shadow of Crusader of Centy, I also regret to report that Crusader of Centy nearly does everything better. Crusader of Centy’s narrative focus on prejudice and miscommunication feels a lot more inspired and poignant than Linkle Liver Story’s musings about the impermanence of naturalistic life. I’ll give Linkle Liver Story that its protagonist’s controls feel more polished and refined, though its enemies are significantly more annoying and its weapon-growing system does not offer nearly as many strategic or personalization opportunities as it seems to hope it does.

Of course, this is all neglecting one crucial detail: in Linkle Liver Story, you can Naruto run as a foxgirl. So maybe it’s better than Crusader of Centy after all

A kitten lives in a cardboard box next to the shrine in Yamanose. One night, a speeding car takes the life of its mother. As quiet snow comes gingerly down from the sky to hug the fading warmth of the mother’s body, the kitten cries. These cries score the night’s wallowing blackness to an audience of one; a young schoolgirl. That schoolgirl brings the kitten to the shrine in Yamanose and houses it in a cardboard box. It stays in this box every hour of every day, calling out to any footsteps that happen to pass by. Whose footsteps they are does not matter; the kitten is cold, it’s hungry, and most importantly it’s lonely in a way it has never known before. To the kitten, any company is better than no company.

A young man lives in a house next to the shrine in Yamanose. One night, a cartel assassin takes the life of his father. As quiet snow comes gingerly down from the sky, pressing gently against the windows of the dojo where the young man holds his father’s body, the young man makes a wordless promise to himself. He spends every hour of every day chasing that promise through the streets and buildings of many places. The young man consults strangers and acquaintances alike for countless favors; who the favors come from does not matter, just that it brings him closer to his goal. Though just as quick as the young man approaches others for favors, he’s similarly quick to leave them, if not quicker. To the young man, company would only get in the way.

The schoolgirl’s classmates and friends all come every day to the cardboard box next to the shrine in Yamanose. They take turns caring for the kitten and making sure she is warm, fed, and loved. Before too long, the kitten recovers enough both physically and emotionally to start walking around outside of the box. The children provide for the kitten all the love and the care a mother would have given multiple times over. That’s what the kitten needs, so that’s what they do.

The young man’s caretakers, his best friends, and the girl who loves him constantly attempt to be a part of his life. They ask how he’s doing, where he’s been, what he’s been up to - the young man insists on being left alone. Before too long, they grow concerned and start wondering why he’s been staying out so late, if he’s doing anything dangerous, offering help if he needs it - again, the young man insists on being left alone. After enough insisting, the young man’s caretakers, his best friends, and the girl who loves him decide to start keeping their distance. That’s what the young man needs, so that’s what they do.

One day, the cardboard box vanishes from the shrine in Yamanose, and the kitten is nowhere to be found. Thanks to the kindness and the love of the schoolgirl and her friends, the kitten is fully recovered and ready to take on the world by herself. There is no doubt in my mind that the kitten will live a full and happy life. I have no worries about the kitten at all. The young man, however… I worry deeply about that young man.

The fact that everything is red is an interesting gimmick, but unfortunately makes it pretty annoying to play. The bullets, the backgrounds, the power ups and the collectibles are all the same white-and-red, which makes it terribly difficult to distinguish what's what once the screen starts filling up - and it fills up often. It also has a surprising amount of "scripted" sequences, which is to say, moments where the game stops so some guy can throw out a couple lines of annoyingly tedious dialogue that sounds like if Marvel movies were a little more liberal about swearing. I wouldn't mind if the dialogue happened in-between levels, or happened alongside the gameplay à la Katamari Damacy, but the game halts everything so you can mash through this stuff every single playthrough. The dialogue wasn't worth reading the first time, and it isn't worth reading the 20th time, I'm sorry! On top of all this, every single common enemy feels like it has a little more health than it should, possibly to account for how ridiculously overpowered the OVERLOAD mechanic is (an admittedly innovative take on a shmup's usual bomb mechanics). Because of this, none of the weapons really feel that great to use until they're completely powered up. So in total, we have a game that does a terribly job of visually communicating much of anything, with poorly written stop-and-go dialogue sequences that break the pacing every playthrough, with weapons that feel bad against these damage-sponge enemies... Maybe there's a good time to be had here if you're better at discerning between the exact same shades of red and white than I am, but even if the game made sense to look at I can't imagine anything here would really retain my attention for very long.

Gorgeous little Famicom game! As denpaloli mentioned in a review before mine, the biggest flaw with this game is surely turning the character around. Which is a shame, since the actual momentum the character moves at is quite satisfying, and feels great once you start getting into a flow with the level design. The slowness of the turn though, and by proxy how long it takes for you to be able to attack after turning, makes navigating any zig-zag-like patterns a little sticky. Aside from that, this game's level design and enemy placement is surprisingly breezy and fair, considering other games that came out at the time. A great game to pop on and run through in an afternoon - don't feel bad using save states towards the final bits though! (Also worth mentioning that this game's first level features one of those notorious full-screen NES waterfalls; if you're photosensitive, be aware of that going in, as well as a few cutscenes towards the end with pretty aggressive flashing.)

A cute little high score-based arena shmup. The gameplay loop itself is perfectly fine - just shoot a bunch of dudes - the presentation is clean, the player character is responsive and the obstacles are always clear and fair. The reason it doesn't get a higher rating from me is because it is just a bit bare - there is no variation in the environment at all, you're always playing in an empty rectangle, and what variations there are of the enemies don't make much of a meaningful difference in how they require you to engage with them. The biggest problem I have, though, is the audio mixing! This game is damn loud!! Even when I had my computer's volume down to a fraction of a fraction it's normally at, the sound when you get hit is still approximately 200% louder than the rest of the game (and I'm not exaggerating). It makes the game very, very difficult to keep playing. This might have been the kind of thing I come back to every now and then to beat my high score if the audio wasn't so violent. Solid title otherwise - would bump up the rating a little if there were volume options!!

Controlling the player character with just the mouse was a fun idea that I was pleasantly surprised by. Unfortunately, the character has some kind of "easing" property which means it won't follow your mouse 1:1, but instead follows your mouse's inputs in a slower, "smoother" calculated line like a photostop brush. You can imagine that in a game like this that would be frustrating, and it is. At first it was inoffensive, a pretty uninspired shmup with the absolute fewest assets needed to make a game but by no means "bad," maybe just "lacking?" Until I reached the second level and saw it was basically identical to the first; which is to say, exactly one enemy type with exactly one bullet pattern, all bunched up at the top of the screen in the same area, just kind of sitting and waiting to be destroyed. The only difference in the second stage is that there were more of them, which shown a gigantic light on the problem with this method. A shmup lives and dies by its bullet patterns, and most games take great care to design them to be these beautiful, thoughtful math equations that guide the player to making deliberate decisions. This game, as I mentioned, has exactly one bullet pattern and just copy/pastes it all over the screen. This is "difficult," sure, like shmups are "supposed to be" (which I resent the notion of, but the notion does exist), though it's only "difficult" because there's no consideration for anything. It's "difficult" because there is no design, no art, just a whole bunch of Stuff happening all over the screen. The boss on the second stage was, predictably, the exact same as the boss on the first stage; same sprite, same bullet patterns, same lack of anything to make you care. The only difference this time is that, for some reason, in my playthrough it just stopped shooting bullets at all for maybe a minute or so and then the game crashed. Nothing in this game has inspired me to boot it back up ever again.